1248 posts
image
View Post
  • 2 min

Sodexo Live Survey Finds 45% of Travelers Prioritize Airport Lounge Comfort, While 28% Seek Culinary Excellence

✈ Sodexo Live and YouGov surveyed 2,166 U.S. and U.K. travelers with premium-flight or lounge experience in the previous year. Priorities include comfort (45%), attentive service (30%), and culinary excellence (28%). Over 50% want quality self-service buffets. Among economy lounge patrons, 36% of Americans want local lunch and dinner options, while 40% of Britons prefer indulgent dinners. Passengers outside business and first class account for 63% of U.S. and 68% of U.K. lounge guests.
View Post
Share
image
View Post
  • 2 min

Schlotzsky’s Adds Three Cheesesteak Items as Denny’s Introduces $9.99 Burger and Olive Garden Revives Pasta Promotion

🧀 Schlotzsky’s adds three cheesesteak-inspired items, while Denny’s introduces burgers starting at $9.99. Olive Garden’s Never-Ending Pasta Bowl runs through November 22, starting at $14.99 with free pasta refills, unlimited breadsticks, and soup or salad. Mountain Mike’s offers customizable mozzarella calzones with up to two toppings, available as a $7.99 pizza-order add-on for a limited time. Sweetgreen’s Fall Harvest menu features maple-glazed Brussels sprouts, salmon, and a chicken bowl.
View Post
Share
image
View Post
  • 3 min

Stephen Witt urges restaurants to build in-house AI tools and assess feasibility within two weeks

🤖 Journalist Stephen Witt told FSTEC attendees Friday in Dallas that restaurants should build low-cost AI tools, testing feasibility within weeks, while outsourcing large infrastructure projects. He said Nvidia could earn about $250 billion in profit this year as AI infrastructure expands. Citing a Gallup poll, Witt put positive views of AI at 90% in China, 70% in Singapore and 35% in the U.S. He also urged stronger AI safeguards and cautioned that kitchen robots remain unpredictable.
View Post
Share
image
View Post
  • 3 min

Online and app purchases now account for 58% of Visa’s U.S. payment volume

💳 Visa reports 58% of U.S. payment volume now occurs online or via apps in 2026, versus 52% in physical stores in 2019. Cards making 10+ monthly online purchases rose from 13.1% in 2018 to 25.4%. Food-delivery app usage reached 10% in 2021 before slipping roughly one percentage point this year. Convenience drives this “couch economy,” though last quarter’s median same-store sales rose 1.6% at publicly traded full-service chains versus 0.8% at limited-service chains.
View Post
Share
image
View Post
  • 2 min

Venn supports farmers with 30-day payment terms and pre-planting commitments to seasonal harvests in Portugal

🌱 venn supports small-scale suppliers in Portugal with fair prices, clear contracts and payment within 30 days—usually paying on receipt. Informa D&B’s 2026 data shows only 20.2% of Portuguese companies pay suppliers within agreed terms. The restaurant is developing a community-supported agriculture partnership, committing to harvests before planting to share growers’ risks. Co-founder and Executive Chef Monika Bloch builds menus around available produce, including heritage Barbela wheat, wild Alentejano truffles and acorn flour.
View Post
Share
image
View Post
  • 1 min

Majorca hotel offers guest promotional code valid in 2026 despite winter closure until February 2027

🏨 A hotel guest returning from a family holiday in Majorca received a promotional code after completing a detailed survey covering check-in, rooms, facilities, restaurants and check-out. The offer applied to stays in 2026, but all the group’s Majorca hotels were closed for winter until February 2027. The guest questioned the hotel’s marketing oversight and described the mismatch as another communication failure following problems before the stay.
View Post
Share
image
View Post
  • 1 min

Marriott’s Gross Fees Rise 14% to $1.52 Billion as Owners Seek More Loyalty Income

🏨 Marriott International’s quarterly gross fees rose 14% to $1.52 billion, while revenue per available room increased 6.5%, exceeding forecasts. Strong results bolstered negotiations with hotel owners seeking more loyalty income, especially from co-branded credit cards. CFO Jen Mason reported improved hotel margins. In an October 26 staff email, CEO Anthony Capuano announced role eliminations alongside new positions to sustain growth; net job changes remained undisclosed.
View Post
Share
image
View Post
  • 2 min

Guests Use AI for Hotel Searches, While Trust in Booking €2,000 Stays Remains in Question

🏨 Hotel guests are using ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity to find accommodation, but the author questions whether they trust AI to complete bookings. A hypothetical €2,000 hotel stay highlights the payment-trust barrier. Hotels are urged to improve content, reviews and structured data so AI can find and understand their properties. Agents such as Instinct and Muse could make automated bookings more viable, though the article provides no booking statistics or adoption timeline.
View Post
Share
The Travel Card’s Next Act: From Earning Points to Erasing Friction
View Post
  • 5 min

Capital One Travel Looks Beyond Points as Survey Finds Over 70% of Travelers Seek Events or Live Experiences

✈ Capital One Travel, launched in 2021, is expanding beyond bookings with personalized trip support and destination experiences. At Skift Global Forum in New York, head Sarah Moore said a company survey found more than 70% of travelers consider events or live experiences. Offerings include a cardholder-exclusive culinary trip with José Andrés in Asturias, Spain. A dedicated app launched within the past year supports the company’s goal of helping cardholders throughout their journeys.
View Post
Share
image
View Post
  • 1 min

Choice Hotels’ Budget Brands Post 3.5% RevPAR Growth Versus 2.5% Industry Benchmark; Upscale Brands Lag

🏨 Choice Hotels’ U.S. revenue per available room rose 3.8% in the third quarter, beating Wall Street forecasts by roughly 1.5 percentage points. Budget brands grew 3.5%, outperforming the industry’s approximately 2.5%, according to Truist Securities citing CoStar data. Higher-priced brands still lagged. CEO Dominic Dragisich said on Monday’s earnings call that Choice had narrowed its performance gap with industry averages and reported October RevPAR growth of about 7%.
View Post
Share